Attachment F- Section L-INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS.pdf

ATTACHMENT E: SECTION L-INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS

15A00024R00000078

SECTION 1.0: INTRODUCTION

This is a Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) competitive requirement for all-inclusive Firearms Identification & Investigations Training Instructor in support of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to include related tasks, training, and travel per the enclosed SOW to be conducted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Acquisition Regulation

(FAR) 13.303 Blanket purchase agreements (BPA). ATF anticipates award of a single blanket-purchase agreement (BPA).

The purpose of this Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) is to fulfill a requirement to recruit qualified individuals, retaining valuable employees, and equipping all employees with the knowledge and skills needed for their current and future Bureau positions.

The Government will select the quote with the lowest evaluated price from among those meeting the acceptability standards for non-price factors. BPA may be awarded to the offeror who is deemed responsible in accordance with FAR Part 9.1-Contractor

Qualifications, as supplemented, whose quotes conforms to the solicitation’s requirements (to include all stated terms, conditions, representations, certifications, and all other information required by Section L of this solicitation) and is assessed, based on the evaluation, to represent the lowest price technically acceptable quote.

NUMBER OF BPA’s TO BE AWARDED

The Government intends to award one Fixed-Price BPA for ATF’s National Academy

(NA). However, the Government reserves the right to award no BPA at all, depending on the quality of the quotations and prices submitted and the availability of funds.

SET-ASIDE REQUIREMENT

This solicitation is 100% set aside for small business under the North American Industry

Classification System (NAICS) code 611710-Educational Support Services.

APPLICABLE CLAUSES

The offeror shall fill-in the applicable provisions & clauses (i.e., 52.223-3, 52.204-17, 52.204-20, 52.204-24, 52.204-26, 52.212-3, 52.222-25, 52.223-22, & ATF-50, etc.) and include with its quotation submission IF not already addressed via the representations & certifications within the System for Award Management (SAM).

SECTION 2: QUOTATION SOLICITAITON REQUIREMENTS, TERMS AND

CONDITIONS

Offerors are required to meet all solicitation requirements, such as terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the solicitation may result in the offeror being ineligible for award. Offerors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and must provide complete supporting rationale. The Government reserves the right to determine any such exceptions unacceptable.

QUOTATION INSTRUCTIONS

To be considered for selection, offerors must submit a complete response to this RFQ using the sequence and format provided herein. Interested firms must follow the instructions within this RFQ.

INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES

Offerors are instructed to read the entire solicitation document, subsequent solicitation amendments (if any), including all the attachments in Section J, prior to submitting questions, preparing your offer, and submitting a quote.

(a) The electronic solicitation documents as posted on https://www.sam.gov shall be the only official documents for the requirements of this solicitation.

(b) The Government will not reimburse Offerors for any cost incurred for the preparation and submission of a quote in response to this solicitation.

(c) Offerors shall organize their quote submission documents to ensure the Government can easily identify which documents apply to which minimum requirement or scored evaluation criteria for evaluation purposes.

QUOTAITON QUESTIONS

The Offeror is advised to monitor www.sam.gov to obtain amendments, information/communications from the CO in a timely manner. The Offeror shall use the

“Attachment B: Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial products and Commercial

Services 15A00024Q00000078, Attachment C: Pricing Model, and Attachment D:

Question-Answers Worksheet to submit to submit questions pertaining to this RFQ to the

CO, Agnes Brooks, via email (agnes.brooks@atf.gov) by 10:00 am Eastern Standard

Time on 07/08/24. This will ensure the CO publishes/releases responses and issues timely amendment(s), if necessary, via www.sam.gov.

https://www.sam.gov/ mailto:agnes.brooks@atf.gov http://www.sam.gov/

(a) The Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO) is the sole point of contact for all questions and answers under this solicitation.

(b) The Offeror shall address all questions via e-mail to the PCO at agnes.brooks@atf.gov.

(c) Questions not submitted to this email address will not be answered.

(d) The Offeror must include their Company Name, Solicitation Number, and Amendment

Number in the subject line of the email.

(e) Questions must include the Page Number, Section Number, and Paragraph Number of the Solicitation that pertain to the Offeror’s questions.

(f) Questions can be e-mailed any time after the notice is posted at agnes.brooks@atf.gov.

(g) Questions received after the due date will only be answered at the discretion of the

PCO.

(h) Questions will be answered under an amendment and posted at https://www.sam.gov prior to the solicitation closing date.

(i) Acknowledgement of receipt of questions will not be made.

(j) CAUTION: Any question or request to add, remove, or revise any of the scored evaluation criteria in Section M will not be considered. This solicitation and scored evaluation criteria will remain unchanged.

(k) Please thoroughly review the entire solicitation, including all the attachments in

Section J, prior to submitting questions.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

This RFQ closes and proposals are due on July 23, 2024, at 4:00 P.M. EASTERN

STANDARD TIME (EST). The Offeror shall submit a complete response to this

RFQ to the Contracting Officer (CO) via www.sam.gov by the response date and time shown in Block #8 of the SF1449 (or as amended by the latest SF30, if applicable).

(a) Offerors must include their Company Name or Company Name abbreviation and Volume Number in the filename. For example, ABC

Incorporated filename for Volume 1, SF-33 is ABC.VOL1.SF33.pdf.

mailto:agnes.brooks@atf.gov mailto:agnes.brooks@atf.gov

(b) Offerors may make minor adjustments to the file naming methodology so long as the resulting file names and organization are clearly understood.

(c) Offerors may provide a Table of Contents that serves as an overall guide to what files are included, where they are located and brief descriptions of what the documents are.

Inclusion of a Table of Contents is optional.

The Offeror shall submit condensed, un-zipped files, attaching no more than two (2) files:

its Non-PRICE quote (Vol. 1) and its PRICE quote (Vol. 2). The Offeror’s quote submission must comply with all terms and conditions set forth in the RFQ to be considered responsible and acceptable. The Offeror shall clearly and completely address all factors as required. Its response must be clear, concise, and specific; statements that its firm ‘understands the requirement and will comply’ solely are not satisfactory.

The Offeror’s response shall demonstrate its ability to accomplish the work described in the Statement of Work (SOW).

Offer Volume. The Offeror’s electronic submission/response shall be single spaced and on 8 ½” x 11” paper with: one (1) font style (i.e., Arial, Bookman Old Style, Calibri, Garamond, Georgia, Mont, or Times New Roman); font color (s) (Black); and font size

12-14.

Submission shall be condensed, un-zipped files, attaching no more than two (2) files: its

Non-PRICE quote (Vol. 1) and its PRICE quote (Vol. 2). The Offeror’s quote submission must comply with all terms and conditions set forth in the RFQ to be considered responsible and acceptable. The Offeror shall clearly and completely address all factors as required. Its response must be clear, concise, and specific; statements that its firm

‘understands the requirement and will comply’ solely are not satisfactory.

NOTE: Information not contained within these limitations will not be evaluated.

The NON-PRICE section (Volume 1) shall be in Microsoft (MS) Word or Adobe with no page limitation. Offeror shall ensure all sections are clear and concise, logically assembled, indexed, and cross-indexed to the applicable part(s) of the RFQ and/or SOW as appropriate. Offeror shall clearly identify and address each section as addressed in

Section 3.0, Statement of Work each section as addressed in Section 3.0, Contractual

Documents.

The PRICE section (Volume 2) shall be detailed and in MS Word or Adobe and Excel, using the “Attachment…” (Attachment C); there is no page limit. The Offeror shall present all information in an organized fashion and provide a basis of estimate, explaining the level of effort used to calculate the prices, so ATF understands the price of the work to be performed. The Offeror shall use no more than two- (2-) digit, decimal places for all rates to avoid rounding discrepancies. Offeror shall clearly identify and address each section as addressed in Section H, Quote Content.

FORMAT

(d) The following Quotation Format Table is provided to assist Offerors in organizing their quote submission documents to ensure the Government can easily identify which documents apply to which criteria for evaluation purposes.

(e) Offerors must adhere to the Volume Numbers, Format and/or Templates, and Page

Limitations provided in the Proposal Format Table.

QUOTE CONTENT

VOLUME SECTION:

Volume Section

Introduction & Other Documentation Section

1 Section A – Table of Contents and

Introduction

Section B – Executive-Level

Summary/Abstract & Corporate

Qualifications

Section C – Contractual Documents

Section D – Exceptions &

Alternatives

Non-Price Section

1 Section E – Factor 1, Qualifications

Experience, Education and Training

Section F – Factor 2, Approach to

Maintaining Subject Matter Currency and Quality Control

Section G – Factor 3, Past

Performance

Price Section

2 Section H – Factor 5, Price

(a) Section A – The Offeror shall include a Table of Contents for easy reference and an

Introduction to clearly explain the purpose of its proposal.

(b) Section B – The Offeror shall include an Executive-Level Summary/Abstract and

Corporate Qualifications, and shall include the following information below:

1) A signed letter formally transmitting the Offeror's quote;

2) Offeror's complete mailing and remittance addresses;

3) Offeror's name, address, email address, telephone number; of the person(s) with contractual authority who can answer questions, if any, about the quote.

4) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and Dun & Bradstreet number (D&B), Taxpayer ID number, and Cage code (likewise for any corporate affiliate at which work is to be performed).

5) Offerors shall meet specifications as noted in the solicitation. ATF will use available sources to access past performance information.

6) A statement that the proposal is valid for 60-calendar days from the date established for receipt of quotes.

(c) Section C – The Offeror shall include Contractual Documents (i.e., signed SF1449 for the original RFQ and signed SF30s for any amendments). These documents shall be in an acrobat file, “.pdf”, and include the printed name and signature of the official authorized to bind the company and sign documents and certifications.

This section shall include the offeror’s fill-ins for the applicable provisions & clauses

(i.e., 52.204-17, 52.204-20, 52.204-24, 52.204-26, 52.212-3, 52.222-25, 52.223-22, &

ATF-50, etc. from the SF1449/ “Solicitation” file) IF not already addressed via the representations & certifications within the System for Award Management (SAM).

(d) Section D – Exceptions & Alternatives

1) The Offeror is cautioned to limit its uncompressed-efile size to 15MB or less and to clearly title the volumes and sections, to include its name. The Offeror shall also include the following in the footer of each page of its quote: Offeror’s name (no logos), Solicitation No. #, 15A00024Q00000066, volume #, section #, and page #. (Offeror shall use a uniformed-paragraph-numbering system.)

2) The Offeror is also cautioned that taking exception to any Terms and Conditions in the RFQ will be at its own risk. The Offeror shall clearly identify the paragraph(s) and term(s) or condition(s) to which the exception(s) applies and include appropriate rationale for such. The Offeror shall identify the part of the RFQ if it suggests optional wording (to include clarifications and addenda) for any term/condition therein. The Government, at its option, may accept or reject the suggested exception(s)/alternative(s)/change(s). If accepted, the CO may need to amend the RFQ. If no exceptions are taken, then the

Offeror shall include the following statement in this section of its quote: “{Offeror’s

Name} takes no exception to any terms or conditions of Solicitation

No.# 15A00024Q00000078”.

Section E: Factor 1 – Qualifications (Experience, Education and Training)

The offeror is to thoroughly address its complete understanding of ATF’s requirements by fully describing its proposed technical approach and capabilities to fulfill the contract objectives. The proposal shall include a detailed description of services to be provided which address in-depth how the offeror plans to meet or exceed the recommended minimum qualifications by providing instruction similar in scope and complexity to the requirements and as determined by ATF subject matter experts as iterated in Attachment C-Statement of Work, Section 6-Tasks.

The Offeror shall provide resumes that best demonstrate the ability of the offeror to execute the Statement of Work (SOW) requirements on the bases of strength of relevant education and training, depth, and breadth of relevant work experiences. Offeror shall ensure ALL resumes include either a Letter of Intent or a signed resume by the Offeror.

Failure to do so may result in a flaw or material failure that may result in an adjectival rating of “Not Relevant.”

Each resume, at a minimum, shall contain sufficient detail to communicate the abilities of the individual to perform in their labor category on the contract including the following information:

Company: Current company affiliation and location

Education: Degree(s), School, Location of School, Major, and Year of Graduation

Job Title: Current & Planned Job Title

Professional Experience/Qualifications: Brief summary of experience and training to the planning and execution of law enforcement incident management during for large scale operations.

Security Clearance: Current security clearance (if applicable)

Section F: Factor 2-Approach to Maintaining Subject Matter Currency and Quality

Control

The Offeror must demonstrate its complete understanding of ATF’s tasks by effectively demonstrating knowledge, understanding, and technical ability to successfully perform all requirements of the SOW. Additionally, the Offeror shall demonstrate how he/she continues to meet or exceed qualification standards, remaining current in the subject areas and ensuring that students meet up-to-date course objectives and successfully complete training.

Offeror is advised to not copy and paste from the SOW to address Factor 2 as it will not be considered in the Government’s evaluation and could result in a flaw or material failure.

Section G: Factor 3-Past Performance (3 pages maximum)

The Government will evaluate past performance which is determined to be both recent and relevant. The offerors’ proposal will be evaluated to determine the extent to which their performance demonstrates the likelihood of successful performance in providing requirements similar in size, scope, and complexity of this solicitation. The Government may choose to evaluate publicly available reports, and/or data from the Past Performance

Information Retrieval System (PPIRS). Acceptable past performance is demonstrated by receiving no negative performance comments on the past performance publicly available reports, and/or data from the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS).

The Government may use present and/or past performance data obtained from a variety of sources, not just those contracts identified by offeror. The information gathered for past performance may also be used in the responsibility determination.

The Government may contact those references during the evaluation. Only for the purpose of this factor, recent is defined as Firearms Identification & Investigations

Training Instructor provided and completed within the last three (3) years. Additionally, the Contacting Officer may use other Government sources which may include Contractor

Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), the Contracting Officer’s knowledge of and previous experience with the service, or any other reasonable basis.

The Offeror shall instruct it’s references to submit “Attachment C-Past and Performance

Survey, known as the Past and Present Performance Survey for the submitted references to the CO, Agnes Brooks via email agnes.brooks@atf.gov if a CPARS cannot be obtained.

If the offeror is without a record of relevant and recent past performance, it shall affirmatively state that it possesses no relevant and recent past performance. In such a situation, an offeror lacking relevant and recent experience that fails to provide an affirmative declaration may be found to have failed to provide a solicitation requirement, the Government may reject their Quote.

Recent is defined as within the last three (3) years. Relevant is defined as work similar in complexity, magnitude, and type of the work described in the SOW.

The Offeror shall provide a detailed summary of the work performed for each past-performance reference submitted. Where possible, ATF may interview each reference provided to verify project scope, dollar value, and obtain additional, past-performance information.

The Offeror shall provide references for a maximum of three contracts/orders with the

Federal Government and/or commercial customers that demonstrate recent and relevant past performance of similar scope, size and complexity of services identified. Recent is defined as within the last three years. Relevant is defined as work similar in complexity, magnitude, and type of the work described in the SOW.

The Solicitation Number is already identified on the past performance surveys. Offeror must provide no less than three (3) three references.

Contract Descriptions. The description of each contract and subcontract shall include the following information in the contract listed:

(a) Contract number.

(a) Title of Program/Project.

(b) Contract Type.

(c) Period of performance.

(d) Awarded price.

(e) Final, or projected final, price.

(f) Original delivery schedule.

(g) Final, or projected final, delivery schedule.

(h) Government/Commercial Contracting activity, current address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address.

(i) A page or less description of the project and the offeror’s rationale as to the relevance the experience in relationship to this requirement.

The Government may also consider information obtained through other sources. Past performance information will be utilized to determine the quality of the contractor’s past performance as it relates to the probability of success of the required effort.

In this section the Offeror will include demonstrated and relevant corporate experience, including subcontractors and teaming partners, in performing projects requiring the type of services solicited, and a brief narrative regarding the project’s size, scope, and complexity to allow the Government to verify experience and past performance information contained in the proposal.

Section H: Factor 4-Price

The price Quote shall be submitted separately from the offeror’s technical Quote.

General. The Government will review the Attachment A: Pricing Model and assess the level of effort and labor mix proposed to perform this requirement, to include a price analysis to determine whether the price is fair and reasonable IAW FAR subpart 13.106-3.

Unit pricing for Firearms Identification & Investigations Training Instructor shall be the fully load price, inclusive of all fully burdened labor rates. Its Price section must also contain sufficient and detailed information/material (i.e.: labor category/rates/hours, and other direct costs) to allow the CO to perform an analysis of the proposed price of the work to determine price reasonableness. All cost associated should be inclusive within your price (including discount costs).

To assess price reasonableness and amount, the Offeror shall submit a quote that adds the total price for all option periods to the total price for the basic requirement. This includes options under FAR 52.217-8, Option to Extend Services, which applies to this solicitation. Evaluation of options under 52.217-8 will be accomplished by using the prices offered for the last option period, which will be added to the base and other option years to arrive at the total evaluated price.

Evaluations of options will not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s).

Shall contain the SF 1449 and a signed copy of each amendment, if any, to the solicitation. An official authorized to bind the company shall sign the SF 1449. An acrobat file, “.pdf”, shall be created to capture the signatures for submission.

5. FORMAL COMMUNICATIONS

(a) The RFQ and amendments will be made available via www.sam.gov from Agnes

Brooks, agnes.brooks@atf.gov.

(b) The offeror is advised to monitor their email continuously to obtain information in a timely manner.

(c) All correspondence pertaining to this RFQ shall be addressed to the Contracting

Officer (CO), Agnes Brooks via www.sam.gov. To issue pertinent and timely RFQ amendments, questions must be received by the date and time on the RFQ email from the

CO.

6. CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Any offeror (or member of its team and/or subcontractor) having a conflict of interest as defined under FAR Part 9.5 must identify the conflict as soon as it is known and provide a recommended mitigation plan. Mitigation plans are required whenever a competing contractor has had unequal access to non-public information regarding this requirement and/or competition or has assisted the Government in defining the requirements or evaluation criteria.